Corporate Yoga Classes

Corporate yoga classes offer real benefits for all organisations.  Yoga can be offered as a value added perk for prospective employees, which can help with the recruitment process.  It can also be used as a mechanism to bring about positive change within a business.  Yoga sessions that incorporate meditation can stimulate more considered decision making as well as less days off sick.  If any members of your team are suffering from anxiety, insomnia or stress, yoga can provide them with the tools they need to bring about positive changes and look at life from a new more balanced perspective. Classes can be tailored to your organisations needs so get in touch for a quotation.

Less sick days lost

Yoga revitalises the immune system and the major organs of the body, removing waste products such as alcohol up to three times more quickly. Improved immunity means less work days are lost through colds, fatigue and other non-specific illnesses.

Less back pain

119 million working days are lost due to back pain each year in the UK. The stronger, healthier backs that result from regular office yoga sessions will significantly reduce the number of days missed in your company. Count them.

Better problem solving skills

Yoga harmonises the left and right sides of the brain so that logical and creative thought come together as one. Flashes of inspiration should become increasingly common.

Quicker response time

By training you in the art of single pointedness, office yoga immediately improves mental concentration and focus.

The ability to Stay Cool Under Pressure

Stress is like an enclosing wall all around us. Yogic deep breathing and yoga stretches create a genuine sense of inner and outer space. Tightening deadlines, interpersonal conflict and other stresses will lose their grip as you learn to breathe and stand your ground.

Some of my team are not very flexible, will they be able to do yoga?

Yes absolutely!  Being extremely flexible, does not mean that you are good at yoga.  It merely means that you have kept active and not engaged in activities that have shortened your muscles or damaged them.   Anyway, yoga is not about being able to scratch your nose with your toe (would you want to do this anyway?).  The physical asana are just part of a bigger picture which involves breathing exercises (pranayama) and meditation, amongst other things.  The reason that yoga is the short hand term for all the bendy stuff is that it is stage one in the journey, a stage that a majority of people do not look past.

If a person meditates, do they need to separately practice mindfulness?

In our experience , if the former occurs with an open heart, the latter will quite naturally follow. Indeed not behaving mindfully when you are away from “the mat”, can be likened to cooking a tasty meal, but not eating it. You’ve spent all that time preparing, but you’re missing the main event… And to some of us, thats just what life is, the main event, and it will happen to you, regardless of whether you appreciate or hide from it…

Our company is interested, how do we get started?

We start out by arranging an initial consultation that will take place on the phone or in person. This will establish your requirements and timescales, the venue / space that we could use at your organisation as well as payment options. We would also take the opportunity to provide you with any support materials you may require when communicating with your team.  Each individual is free to engage as deeply as they wish with the yoga, some just like to attend a regular session, whilst others appreciate the reading lists & video lectures which we offer.

Client development is regularly tracked and a portion of time is allocated to reflect on what is working and what is not. These adjustments are made and the changes will be evaluated at a later date.

Where does yoga come from?  What is its history?

The origins of what we now call yoga cannot be pinned down absolutely, but It is generally accepted that the first people to formally practice meditation a core part of what yoga is, lived on the Indian subcontinent over 7,000 years ago.

Many people point to the view that meditation – which forms a huge part of Yoga – is a tantric practice originally followed by devotees of Shiva. Indeed the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, from the 15th century, states that it was developed by a tantric sage with the same name. Other written sources, such as the Shiva Samhita, claim the same thing. That is why in India, Shiva is called the King of Yoga. He is believed to have lived on the subcontinent during the first Vedic Aryan invasion of India over 7,000 years ago.

Subsequently meditation became integrated within wider Hindu society and overtime also became part of Buddhism, itself a development of that societies practices. Approximately 600BC, Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) reached “enlightenment” by meditating under a Bodhi Tree. The major break between Buddhism and Hinduism occurred, as Buddha’s followers did not believe meditation to be a means of getting closer to a higher being – a God, but rather as a means of realising one’s interconnectedness with all things.

More or less in parallel with the development of Buddhism, Daoism (also known as Taoism due historic issues in translation) was on the rise in China. Daoism, is a philosophical tradition of Chinese origin which emphasises living in harmony with the Dao. Dao is a word signifying the “way” or “key”. Dao is the intuitive knowing of “life” that cannot be grasped whole-heartedly as just a concept, but has to be known through actual living experience of one’s everyday being.

Unsurprisingly, when followers of Buddhism and Daoism met, they had quite a lot in common, and started to adopt each others practices. Culminating in Zen Buddhism. Zen emphasises rigorous self-control, meditation-practice, insight into Buddha-nature, and the personal expression of this insight in daily life, especially for the benefit of others. It de-emphasises knowledge of texts, and favours direct understanding through Zazen – the nature of existence.

In more recent times people like Tirumalai Krishnamacharya studied the 196 Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and brought them to life for the modern world.  The 8 components or limbs of yoga Patanjali identified were later incorporated into Ashtanga Yoga by  Pattabhi Jois, a student of Krishnamacharya.  Ashtanga is one flavour of yoga among many, the classes tend to follow prescribed sequences that increase in difficulty as you move through the classes.  Yoga Wellbeing does not teach Ashtanga yoga specifically.  We put together specific classes that suite the requirements of each client.